Though the iPhone 4S launched in a total of seven countries on Friday, only users in the U.S. have access to Siri's Maps and businesses integration, while international users will gain more functionality in 2012.

A roundup of some of the tasks Siri cannot accomplish outside of the U.S. was collected on Friday by MacStories. For example, Maps integration with Siri does not work outside of America, meaning users cannot search for businesses, Yelp user reviews or traffic data.

When users attempt to search for Maps data in the U.K., Siri responds with: "I can only look for businesses, maps and traffic in the United States, and when you're using U.S. English. Sorry about that."

Apple's list of frequently asked questions related to Siri notes that Maps and local search with Yelp are currently only available in the U.S. Remaining features, including Phone, Music, Calendar, Contacts, Weather, and Web search are available to international users, though Wolfram|Alpha integration is available in English only.

Siri remains in "beta" at launch, and it understands English from the U.S., U.K. and Australia, as well as French and German. Apple has promised that Siri will support additional languages in 2012, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.

For more on the Siri voice recognition technology that is exclusively available in Apple's new iPhone 4S, see AppleInsider's in-depth look at the features and functionality available with Siri.

I just want to make sure I got this right -- Apple bought SIRI that worked on a 3gs, made it break if you are outside of the US, and then artificially limited it to the 4s? seems quite silly to me -- am I incorrect?

Works amazingly well in Australia. I'm very impressed with how well Apple have managed the software. I think Siri has a slightly different accent in Australia to the voice demonstrated in the US version. Most of this message was constructed in dictation by Siri, with a few minor edits.

Still, I asked her to tell me a joke and she replied: "two iPhone's walked into a bar". Indeed.

Worse yet, I liked the sound of the Aussie accent so I chose that voice. If you use anything other than American English (even in the U.S.) you cannot use Siri for mappping. Absolutely stupid stupid stupid. How hard is it to choose a voice you like and just let the software work based on GPS location or by choosing a country manually? Sometimes I just don't understand Apple.

On a lighter note, my mind went into the gutter and on a whim I told Siri I wanted a BJ...and she gave me the location of eight different escort services in Dallas, TX. I went so far as to tell her (blatantly) I wanted to find a hooker and that request also brought up the same escort services. I laughed so hard I almost drove off the road. I can see it now..."news at 7...Man dies in car accident...last request in his phone was to find a hooker".

Don't want to sound like an Apple apologist, but this isn't the first time Apple brought something out that was initially limited to the US market, and it probably won't be the last. The challenge is finding partner services for offering the missing features in other countries.

Me too. Why isn't the iPhone 4 supported, anyway? Obviously it's not a "special feature" tied to the new models since not every country is supported. It can't be a hardware issue, could it?

The reasoning I heard was that the iPhone 4S has a better microphone and a faster processor. The simpler answer is probably that they want to give you a reason to upgrade, Apple unfortunately is still in the business of selling new hardware.